Chicago Appleseed is a social impact research and advocacy organization which uses multidisciplinary research to identify community injustices, and to develop and advocate for practical solutions. We focus on the areas of Criminal Justice Reform, Civil Courts Reform, improving access to Justice, and building a new generation of lawyers advocating for social justice through our Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago program.

Programs:

Civil Courts Reform and Improving Access to Justice: We work to identify ineffective, inefficient, and unfair court management policies and procedures, recommend improvements, and advocate for their implementation.  We are committed to strengthening fairness, integrity, efficiency, and professionalism in the courts. We provide practical information on how to build and maintain an effective and independent justice system that enjoys the confidence of the public and lives up to the expectations of transparency and accountability. Projects include exploring and advocating for alternative approaches to leveling the playing field for the increasing number of self-represented litigants in the Domestic Relations and Debtor/Creditor courts, making the system around court costs and fees in the civil legal system fairer and more effective for all persons, and exploring and advocating for improvements in the domestic violence courts.

Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago (FJLOC): The goal of the Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago (FJLOC) is to create a new generation of lawyers or other advocates working to confront issues of injustice in our community and work to improve the legal system.

Our program has three objectives:

• Skills building – writing and focusing on how to identify injustice and use research and advocacy to combat it. Our writing team works with the students in proposed line editing, proper citation, and making the writing more compelling and advocacy oriented.
• Mentoring – through Lawyer Advisors, law student mentoring, and mentoring provided by the FJLOC alumni.
• Building a supportive community – a network of lawyers, law, students, and alumni who will support each other.

We utilize lawyers and law students to mentor the pre law undergraduate and high school students in our FJLOC program.  Lawyers and law students also work with the graduates of our program on research and advocacy projects around such topics as the impact of dismantling the immigration courts, disrupting the school to prison pipeline, and the foster care system.

Criminal Justice Reform: We use research, advocacy, legislative proposals, and technical assistance to improve all areas of our criminal justice system – all with the primary focus being on decarceration, justice, and fairness to all persons.  Projects include work around destructive court costs and fees in the criminal legal system, and re-purposing our misdemeanor courts to convert them into community-based hubs for conflict resolution which are off ramps away from the criminal legal system.

PILI Opportunities:

We are seeking assistance in the preparation of Policy Briefs – research and advocacy papers that explore current trends in public policy. In particular, Chicago Appleseed policy briefs investigate and propose policy innovations and advocacy strategies with potential to improve Chicago, Cook County, and/or Illinois courts and legal systems. Chicago Appleseed then advocates for the implementation of these innovations. We are seeking mentoring for our FJJOC pre law undergraduate and high school students as well as seeking assistance with advocacy projects done collaboratively with alumni from the FJLOC program and other organizations and individuals.

This agency is approved to host Graduate Fellows.